Bengal Congress accuses TMC-BJP of stirring communal tension

October 21, 2016, 12:13 PM IST

Kolkata: West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Chowdhury accused the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Friday and the BJP of playing out a “fixed match in stirring up communal passion” in the state “to seek political dividends” and claimed that communal harmony was “at stake”.

He told reporters that the state had never witnessed a situation like this. After Independence, it was ruled by both the Congress and the Left Front but during their reigns, communal harmony had never been threatened. Chowdhury’s remarks were in reference to clashes during the just-concluded Durga Puja festival and Muharram which the state government today described as “stray incidents” occasioned by “personal rivalry”. The government also claimed that “quick action” was taken in all these incidents.

“The BJP-RSS has bailed the TMC out of the Saradha and Narada scams. And the TMC is paying back by allowing the communal elements to wreak havoc in the state. Both the TMC and the BJP are trying to create communal divisions and seek political dividends out of them,” Chowdhury alleged.

He alleged that the West Bengal government was pursuing the “politics of appeasement for the sake of vote bank”.

He also claimed that the RSS’s Bengal unit has recently decided to write to the Union Home Ministry about the rise of fundamentalism and communal incidents in the state.